Look Who's Posting Now?

So I've been experiencing pangs of guilt lately--I supposed there are many things I could have these over...the pint of Ben and Jerry's I ate Friday night, the way I got angry at my kids for their mess, the fact that I haven't solved world hunger yet.  But my guilt isn't from any of those things; it's from the fact that I have been neglectful about my blog.  Now I don't keep up the blog to showcase my admittedly amazing incredible life...I keep it up as a family chronicle, a journal complete with stories and pictures of our goings-on.  The reason I feel so guilty lately is because the kids have been LOVING reading the book I made out of my blog.  They laugh at the stories and pictures of themselves, all the silly things they used to say, they remember the fun vacations we took and things long forgotten.  And as I read the stories that I had written, I realized all those daily things, the cuteness, annoyances, craziness, messes, up and downs that you think you will always remember....well, you don't.  And so I am making a renewed commitment to my family to be better about this little family record, silly as it may be.  And someday when I am old and gray and maybe even long gone, they will have these memories to look back on and remember all the good times we had together.

I did notice in my old blog book that I used to write with much more finesse than I have for a while.  I thought for a minute that perhaps I have gotten boring, or the kids have sucked all my creative brain cell away.  But I realize, it is a 2-fold issue: 1--the fact that I wait so long between posting makes me have to catch up on 6 months at a time--and I can't sit at a computer screen detailing the little things trying to cover that amount of info, and 2--I came to the realization that it is not ME that has gotten boring...it's my kids.  I'm still as interesting as ever, but my kids are outgrowing that sweet innocent stage where the silly things they say and do are just that, silly and cute.  Now, however, when my kids do those same "silly" things I tend to find them more annoying than cute.  Case in point--making a picture on the bathroom counter out of broken Q-tips used to be adorable.  In current times though I find myself saying, "Who broke my entire box of new Qtips!!  I just bought those!!  What a mess."  Ok, maybe I'm not THAT bad, but no one can argue that a 13-year-old boy is as cute as he was when he was 3.  But I digress, back to my point, I figure if I can update the blog more often then I will be able to remember and include the cute little things that get forgotten so easily.  So here's my attempt at keeping current...

The kids like to steal my phone and even though I have a passcode on it, they can still work the camera...and boy, do they work the camera.  In a world where they are surrounded by screens it makes sense my kids would want to be on one themselves.  I find literally countless videos the kids have taken of themselves and each other--Joey's videos are usually of him making some odd face and equally strange noises while filming in slo-mo or fast mode which exaggerates his craziness.  Maggie, on the other hand, had decided she wants to be a "YouTuber"and makes instructional videos on how to do things like play with a dollhouse, or draw a picture.  They are usually very very very informative (translation: LONG--the last one was 23 minutes long).  But every once and a while while deleting all the new additions to my album, I come across a gem or two.  Here's a cute one of Joey the kids must have snapped.  We must have been leaving grandma Calder's house (the soda can).

We took a day trip on President's Day to the San Raphael Swell.  On the drive down Ziggy showed how True Blue she was by smiling when we put on Ty's BYU hat.  I mean, really...she is smiling.  Either that or thinking "I'm just waiting to make my escape.  Just smile and pretend everything's normal...."

 It was a bit of a sketchy drive through snow and then mud but we made it.  It is a really neat area with tons of huge boulders and red rock type landscape.  Jake was in rock hound heaven collecting tons of specimens for his ever growing collection.

 We let the kids climb around on the hills and boulders...which also means that even though we had intended to go for a nice long hike we didn't make it very far.  Boulders are much more enticing to a bunch of kids than a brisk walk.

 

 

There were some really neat looking rock formations.  While the kids were playing on the boulders we found a "rock bench" that we parked it on while we watched the kids play.

 Ziggy was thirsty and so we even found a rock with built in bowl for her to drink water from!  Boy did she have a blast.  It is so fun to have a dog that we can take on things like this.  It sounds silly, but I get so much joy from watching her run and jump and do all the dog things she does when she is outdoors.  You just know she is having the time of her life.  I just hope she appreciates it!  Not many dogs have as good a life as she does...

 The first path we ventured out on was pretty muddy--you can see behind Maggie how muddy it was. We stayed away from the worst parts like that, but it didn't keep our shoes from being dragged down by a pound of mud stuck to them.  So before too long we changed tactics and went a different way and that was much better.

 Of course stopping every 10 seconds to climb and play.  Maggie decided to take a nap.

 In the area there are several places with Indian petroglyphs and pictographs.  We stopped at one of the bigger sites that is marked and took a look around.  It was pretty incredible.  Plus I got a nice hug from my teenager which was pretty incredible too....just kidding.  I'm lucky that Tyler is such a loving boy.  There is no shortage of hugs coming from him.  I might be doing something right...fingers crossed!

 The boys and Eric have done a lot of skiing this winter.  As mentioned before, I am learning along with Maggie and Joey, but we can't handle the big stuff like the boys do.  So they go without us several times.  I'm so glad they have this activity they love.  Tyler set a goal to ski every single run in Sundance this winter, including the double black diamonds he never skied before.  Well as of yesterday afternoon he met his goal!  He went skiing with his friends determined to finish the last of the missing runs and he did it!  Now how to get him to set a goal about getting better grades.....

 This picture is from a while ago but I just found it.  Eric and I took Joey on a horse ride in Payson Canyon.  It was close by and we had a fun time.  I have decided to embrace my new cowgirl lifestyle and have set a goal to get more proficient at riding and everything that goes along with it this summer (saddling, loading, bridling, etc.)  I'd even like to start working with our foal Cinco.  I've got some books about it--I guess we will see how it goes (i.e. if I end up kicked in the face or not).

 We have season tix to BYU basketball again this year (I think I have previously mentioned this) and Eric takes turn taking the kids (on the games I don't want to go, or course).  Joey got his turn...but I'm pretty sure he only cared about getting a Cougartail.

 And on to more important matters--ice cream.  We found the best ice cream on the planet at a new popular shop in Provo called Rockwell Ice Cream Parlor.  Holy moly, it is soooo good.  We stopped by there one afternoon since we'd heard raves about it and it certainly delivered.  I can be an ice cream snob, but this hit the mark in every way.  Delicious interesting flavors, huge portions and good music playing.  Check, check and check.  We will definitely be back.

And to close off I'll tell you a story about my currently favorite son Jacob (you'll see why in the story).  I was deciding between 2 pairs of jeans and I modeled them for Eric and Jacob just happened to be sitting next to him.  I modeled both pairs and asked which one looked better, which in girl terms translates into "Which pair makes me look thin?"  I made sure to tell them that's what I meant, just so there was no confusion.  Eric was deciding and Jacob chimed in with, "You look thin in both pairs."  BOOM--he just moved to the top of the list.  Nice job Jake, I've taught you well.  Now I better get to work on Joey who asked me if I had a baby in my belly.....